Food fads come and go. Some are good -- hello, Cronut! Some are everlasting -- bacon on everything! And some are just WTF -- flavored infused foams? Why, Ferran Adria, why? The latest craze sweeping across the country falls squarely into the last category. Yes, I mean “bone broth.”

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One thought on “Last Call: The Average Thanksgiving Meal Costs as Much as 35 SNAP Meals”

Mariella Mosthof wrote: “Here’s a depressing infographic about how the average Thanksgiving dinner costs as much as 35 SNAP meals.”

Yes, a very depressing infographic…….unless you actually use your brain to think it through.

1. The figure of $1.43 is misleading. The maximum benefit for a family of 4 on SNAP will be $1.76 per meal, both of which figures are meant to be supplemental, not the entire cost of a meal, especially the $1.43 per meal.

2. A $49 home cooked Thanksgiving meal can easily feed 10 people which will equal 3.4 SNAP benefits at the low figure given by the WaPo and 2.7 SNAP benefits at the maximum benefit level ($4.80). How many meals do the people at WaPo have under $4.80 when they are dining out in Georgetown, or the staff of The Braiser in NYC for that matter? Do you think they are depressed and contemplating each meal they eat in terms of the equivalent number of SNAP benefits?

3. A medium sized turkey will provide plenty of leftovers beyond the one meal which would bring down the number of SNAP benefits per meal. So you end up with a figure that is not really so profligate or gluttonous.

4. The Thanksgiving meal is a special day that is usually only matched by the Christmas meal. People don’t eat like that every day of the year.

5. For those at WaPo and The Braiser and anyone else who is going to be tearing up while they shove turkey and pumpkin pie down their gullet. Here is a truly depressing statistic for you:

Having a meal at Alice Waters’ (whom The Braiser idolizes) Chez Panisse on a Friday or Saturday night, food, drink, tax and tip, will cost you over 140 SNAP benefits for just ONE MEAL for ONE PERSON. Now where is your weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth The Braiser?

BTW: Alice Waters wants the cost of food to become more expensive, not cheaper, so take that SNAP recipients and poor and hungry people of the world.

6. Does anyone really think that infographic is going to stop The Staff of The Braiser from having their Thanksgiving meal?

Oh, I forgot that Thanksgiving is the celebration of the beginning of white European patriarchal hegemony over North America which led to the genocide of the non-warlike and peaceful indigenous peoples, which in turn led to racism, imperialism, brutal rape and slaughter of all non-white peoples around the world, which brings us to today’s contemporary structures of oppression that have been sustained since 1620, when white male racism began to nourish the exploitative logic of global capitalism, and dehumanize non-white lives, consequently lost to centuries of senseless violence and exploitation, and the ultimate triumph of the white male privilege which still exists today.